Gender Policy

UMONS’ Gender Policy

On 5th May 2014, UMONS put in place a working group due to its concerns about the welfare of its staff. This group is led by Catherine Gravet, the person of contact and Advisor to the Rector on gender issues.

Observations:

Today, in terms of numbers, female students represent the majority of both the UMONS population and that of all other institutions in the French Community of Belgium. It should be noted, however, that this strong female presence does not exist in all sectors, and some of our courses represent either male or female-dominant domains. In addition to their leading presence, female students have a higher success rate than male students.

If we look at scientific and teaching staff, things look quite different: the higher up the academic career, the higher the proportion of men. Similarly, the University’s decision-makers are mostly men.

These observations remind us that our university, and society in general, should not overlook people’s talents, and that it does not matter if these talented people are male or female.

Missions:

The main missions of this working group are to :

• Undertake a detailed assessment of any issues and monitor the evolution of the objective data, particularly by monitoring institutional statistics.
• Reflect on the causes of inequality and ways to fix this.
• Be a spokesperson for issues of inequality, both internally and externally.
• Make proposals likely to bring progress in areas of expertise.
• Support the person of contact for gender issues.
• Make this issue known both within and outside of UMONS.
• Encourage academia as well as male and female researchers and PhD candidates to think in terms of gender.

Lastly, in addition to the primary mission of gender equality, this working group strives for a wider integration of the gender dimension (identity issues, disparities and social prejudice, diversity of sexual orientations, inclusive and non-discriminatory management of human resources, etc.).

Gender Equality and Diversity Plan

Concerned with gender equality and diversity, the UMONS has embarked on a set of measures to rise the awareness of the diverse profiles and to prevent the various forms of inequality, by identifying the underlying causes of discrimination and bias and by implementing various initiatives to reinforce the measures adopted in recent years.